Red Swans
by LittleRedRidingVanz
Summary: Emma is superrr stressed about just everything... and Ruby comes! emma starts to have feelings for her.. but she's scared of them... can she have a semi-good relationship w/ ruby or will she be too scared to go with them? SO, i got inspired from some red swan stories like "Distraction" by RainboIsland good story
1. Chapter 1

**AN: My first Once Upon a Time story... so ... sorry if it sucks :P**

I listen as the door slams shut and echoes around the seemingly empty apartment. Unfortunately it isn't empty. There's one person in here besides me. And that other person isn't Mary Margret since I just sent her to jail. Marry Margret is in jail because I sent her there, because all the signs of Kathryn's disappearance all lead to her, even when I know she hasn't done anything.

No, that other person that is breathing is Ruby. Cheery, funny, outgoing Ruby. Though right now she doesn't seem like any of that as she walks out of what used to be my room but is now temporarily hers. It seems her time is up here as well as Mary Margret's is, for now.

Ruby spots me and quickly puts down the box she was carrying. "Oh, hey," is all she manages to think of saying.

I nod my head in acknowledge meant. I don't feel like I can even trust my own voice in betrayal of sounding weak.

"I'm just moving out. Granny gave me back the job. It seems like I might be the new owner of the place when she retires." I know those words are just trying to fill the very empty air. The air that is empty because Mary isn't here to fill it. She isn't here to make conversation with both of us.

Sighing I just nod my head and look past her towards the room that Mary is letting me share with her until Ruby moves out, ironically that seems like it's today.

"Hey, I'll just go," is what Ruby says not really waiting for an answer as she picks up her box and heads out the door.

My voice comes out of my throat before I can even process what's going on, "Don't go." That makes her stop, but she's already moving, like I'm only saying it to be nice. I have to say more, I have to say the dreadful words I have never spoken in my life, "Don't go, I don't want to be alone." I'm looking down at the ground like I'm speaking to it instead of her. I don't know why I want Ruby to be the one to comfort me, I'm not sure why I even called out to her. Maybe she'll just shrug it off like everyone else does when I ask them to stay.

Instead I hear the clatter of her high heeled boots that make her even taller than she already is. I feel like I'm about to burst. Ruby's so close I can smell her scent, feel the heat running off of her body. Something about her always makes me feel odd, and this oddity makes me nervous and scared. What do I feel for her? What's this feeling? It's almost so foreign that it seems scary.

I can feel my heart stutter as her hand lifts up onto my cheek. As she strokes the slightly chubby spot on my cheek, I can feel her smile down at me. I'm so tense right now, I bet a slight breeze could knock me over.

My breath quickens as she keeps rubbing the spot. I'm just praying to god that she doesn't hear the change of rhythm in my breathing pattern, but of course God is always against me. I look up to see her quirk her eye brow up and stop the movement.

"You know, with all that's happening right now, I'm sure you need a break," is what she says as she sets her hand down to her side. "Or at least, you need something to take your mind off."

Ruby's POV

"Or, at least, you need something to take your mind off. I'm sure sending Mare into prison has just got you stressed out." At the mention of Mare I can see the little lost girl in Emma come and rest herself in her eyes. I gently rest my hand on her wrist and say to her, "I can bring your mind off of everything, Ems." I was hoping to take away that lost little girl from Emma's eyes but the look still lingered. She looks so vulnerable right now. Like the mention of Mare makes her think she's striped of her safety.

I take her by the wrist and we make our way to the room I was using, which is hers.

As I place her onto the bed I can see she's visibly shaking. She seems so nervous. When has Emma ever been nervous? Never. Well, never until this moment.


	2. Chapter 2

Ruby's POV

I awake with a weight on my chest. Great, who'd I sleep with this time? I look down onto my chest and see blonde hair. Wait, oh, it's just Emma. Just Emma. I run my hand through her wavy hair. She tightens her hold on my waist. It's surprising for Emma to be the cuddling type. Maybe she's not, maybe it's just me. God, I could only hope.

I stop my stroking. There's moistness on my chest. Either Emma's a drooler or she's crying. God, she's probably a drooler, she's not a crier.

"Emma?" I ask tentatively. I hope she's not crying. The wrong words will come out of my mouth trying to comfort her.

I can feel her stirring. She's waking up.

"Ruby?" Her voice is hoarse as if she's been crying all night or she just woke up. I'm pretty sure it's a combination of both.

I continue stroking her hair. She looks so frightened. Just like the lost little girl I saw last night. This was probably how she looked when she was younger. When she found out that she was found at the side of the road by some teenager. Then the realization hits her that her parents just left her, that they didn't want her. Didn't even give the thought to put her in an orphanage.

"Are you ok, Ems?" I whisper in her ear. I don't want to startle her with my loud voice.

All she can do is nod her head and place her head into the nape of my neck. I can feel more tears spill out of her eyes. I know she feels too ashamed that she's crying. She doesn't want me to see her so vulnerable.

She's really got me worried now, what would make the toughest girl I know into a sobbing mess? "Emma, what's wrong?"

There are sobs now racking her body. She can't even control the convulsing of her body. She finally stutter out to me saying, "I-I-I-I'm so scared, R-R-Ruby."

"What are you scared of, Emma?"

"You make me feel strange, Ruby." Her words are muffled by my neck. She's scared of what I how I make her feel?

I grin down at her and ask her, "How do I make you feel, Ems?"

"When I see you my heart just wants to stutter out of my chest and jump onto you. When you hug me I feel all warm and special. When you touch me … it's like I'm on fire." I can feel the heat rising from her bare chest as she blushes. Awww, how cute, a blushing Emma Swan.

I place a kiss on her cheek. "You really mean that, Ems?"

She takes her reddened face out of my neck. Her face has shock written all over. "Of course I mean that, Ruby, I wouldn't lie about that." I should take a picture of this moment. It's not every day that you see Emma Swan confess her heart to someone. I would never have thought that she would be doing that to me.

**AN: Sorry it's sooo shortttt :P I'll post a lot though **


	3. Chapter 3

_(After finding Kathryn)._

**Emma's POV**

It's been a week since we found Kathryn. Everyone thinks that Sydney did it, he didn't. I know better. He's just in "love" with Regina. I don't know how I'm going to find out that Regina did, but I will.

It's been a couple weeks since I told Ruby how I felt for her. Those feelings I have for her still scare me. I can't tell her that though. I can't tell her I'm scared that she'll dump me down like everyone else who was in my life. I'll be crushed beyond repair because of those deep feelings I have for her.

Every night when I go to bed without her I have nightmares of her leaving. Of her telling me that those feelings that she said she returned were just a hoax. I prepare myself every day for that. I don't know what'll happen to me if she did that. I would probably leave town. Try to forget about her. Try to forget those feelings I had. I would live like I had before Henry came along. Henry. Great, I can't leave Henry with Regina. He needs me even when I couldn't bear being here if Ruby couldn't feel like I could. Even if Ruby crushes my feelings.

"Hey Emmy," I hear her perky voice make their way to my ear. Her voice soothes me. I don't have to think when she talks to me. "How are you, Lemur?" Ruby wrapped her arms around my waist as she leaned down to whisper in my ear. Yes, she is a lot taller than I am. Like a lot. Like three inches taller.

I don't know when we decided that we should start going out but it just happened. Ruby became more intimate and I become, well, I've been trying to open myself up to her, but so far that's been impossible. Ruby's patient though. She knows not to push it when I've opened up to her as much as I can.

"I'm fine, Rubes," I sigh out. Yeah, she'll totally believe that.

She released my waist and looked down at me. "That's bullshit, Ems. What's wrong?" She started stroking my hair. I could feel myself tense at the intimate gesture but slowly I relax into her touch. What is this girl doing to me?

"It's nothing, Ruby, seriously." She doesn't have to know that what's really bothering me is the thought of her leaving me. Of the thought of her crushing me. That what's really bothering me is those nights that haunt me of her leaving me.

Grabbing onto my shoulders she looks at me and asks me again, "What's wrong?" The concern that lases itself with her voice makes me want to cry into her. I can't though. The reject that would happen with her would be tortures.

Instead I shake her hands off of me and tell her, "It's nothing, I told you."

But of course she doesn't let it go like I want her to, she's too stubborn for that. Instead she grabs my wrist and says, "You're going back to Granny's with me. Your shift is over anyway."

"Ruby, I said it's nothing." My protest doesn't even matter right now. She has her mind made and honestly? I don't think it'll change.

"Your nothing means something, Emma. I know that from experience." She's got me there. Why does she take note of all the things I do? How come she just doesn't brush it off like everyone else does?

By the time we come outside she's already going into the driver's seat. Um, there's a problem here! She is not going to drive my car. For one it's called "my car" for a reason and two I'm scared of her driving skills. She might be way more coordinated than I am on the ground but as a driver, well, who am I kidding we both suck at driving. Everyone knows I am because of hitting that stupid sign because of that stupid wolf.

As she starts the car I say to her, "You're actually going to drive my car?" Her only response is to nod and pull out of the parking lot and drive towards, well, not Granny's that's for sure. "Rubes, where are we going?"

Without taking her eyes off the rode she tells me, "We're going to the lake." The lake? We have a lake? Since when have we ever had a lake? Why did Ruby lie about going to Granny's when we're going to the lake? Is this why she's driving?

All these questions come up from just a little sentence. I really need to get a hold of myself. "What lake?" I make the question sound like I know which ones there are when honestly I don't even know if we have more than one lake in this tiny town.

"We only have one, Ems, the Storybrooke Lake." Nice going, now you look like a fool to the person you like deeply. Ruby looked over at me and smiled lightly and told me, "Aww, how cute, you're blushing." Why does she find amusement in my embarrassment?

I pout and look away as I tell her, "Why do you always pick on me?" I already know the answer though. It's not every day you see the tough skinned sheriff blush like a little school girl caught stealing cookies.

"Why, Emma, because it is my job to make fun of my girlfriend." Girlfriend? Did she just call me her girlfriend? Like two people dating? Seeing my confusion she goes on saying, "It's ok that I call you my girlfriend right? Because that's what we are now, right?" Well there was no ritual that we went through to make us girlfriend and, um, girlfriend, so I'm not so sure.

I smile down at my lap and tell her, "I guess we are, Rubes, I guess we are."


	4. Chapter 4

Emma's POV

We finally made it to the stupid lake that I didn't know about. Don't ask how a sheriff doesn't even know where the town lake is. It must not be very popular, right? Either that or there was just no reason for know about it until now. There were no crime scenes at a lake. The only crime happening near a body of water was when we found a heart that we thought was Kathryn's. I'm still not sure if who's heart that was.

"Emma? Do you want to get out of the car or do you just want to stay in the car?" Her voice is teasing again. I looked over at her and saw that she had turned the engine off. "We could stay in the car and just not go through what I wanted to talk to you about, but we could go out and I could splash you then we could talk about what I wanted to talk to you about." Oh, right, we're here to talk about my problem.

I smile weakly at her and nod my head as I got out of the car.

"Tell me, Em, what's wrong?" The concern on her face makes me want to tell her, though the thought in my head stops me from telling her. She'll think I'm being ridiculous. That what I'm worrying about is stupid. "Emma." Her voice takes me out of my mind.

"It's nothing, Rubes, just like I told you."

Sighing heavily, Ruby takes me by the shoulder (how many times has she done that?) and tells me, "Emma, what. Is. Wrong." She says those words slowly as if I'm a small child who's crying on the pavement and won't tell her how I fell.

I can feel tears pricking my eyes. No, Emma, don't cry. And finally everything just burst. The tears start falling from my eyes like my eyes are waterfalls and the words "I'm scared" falls from my lips. Everything's falling now. I feel like I should be falling.

I'm wrapped up in Ruby's arms like a small child needing comfort from her parent.

"What are you scared of, Emma?" She's petting my head, it's very soothing now. I'm clinging onto her like she's the only thing I need to stay alive, it's true if you think about it.

"Y-Y-You're going to l-leave m-me." I can barely get the words out. It's like they're rammed inside my throat and they don't want to come out.

"I would never leave you." I can hear the promise in her words but I can't stop the tears that are cascading from my eyes. "All I want is you, I would never want to be apart from you. Come on, let's go to Mare's place, then we can get some sleep."

"Y-you'll s-stay right?" I sound so pathetic. I'm stuttering and everything in front of the girl I really like. That's so dumb. "I mean… only if you want to." Good job Emma… you have somehow made yourself sound even dumber than you did before. 'If you want', really? Don't you fuckin' dare say 'I mean…' again. Don't do it brain, don't listen to brain, mouth, DON'T! "I mean –" Nice going you stupid ass brain… - "You don't have to stay with me, you can just not." GOD DAMMNIT EMMA! What the fuck! You sound so much MORE stupid! Nice going, made me look even dumber than I already am.

All Ruby did, though, was give her famous grin and say, "Of course I'll stay with you, Ems, I'll always be here." She'll always be here. I wonder how long she can keep that promise. "Why wouldn't I want to stay with you? I love you." Love? Did she just say she loves me? "Don't be so surprised, Ems, you know I love you." Yeah, I guess, but hearing it is another thing.

"Yeah," is what my brilliant mind comes up with, yup, I'm just an idiot right now.

"God, Ems, you're just so cute right now! Who would've thought that the sheriff could blush so easily?"

"You."

**AN: again… sorry it's so short heh later chaps will be tonsss longer… but it'll take longer to put up so just bare with me :D**


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